* In an effort to save, oh, about $100 a month I decided to stop going to Starbucks every morning. Yesterday I dusted off my coffee maker and made coffee for the first time in months and enjoyed a wonderful thermos full of coffee at my desk. This morning, in an effort to try and replicate my Starbucks concoction, I steamed some chocolate soy milk and added it to my super strong organic french roast coffee and, it was bound to happen, left it at home without even tasting it. My Starbucks sabbatical lasted only a day.

* Heed this advice: if you are one of those proud-to-be-an-SUV-driving people who not only have the faintest idea what is happening in the world (beyond who got fired on the Apprentice last week) and could care less about global issues and have the BALLS to call me an “environmentalist freak,” you really shouldn’t be surprised when I call you an “ignorant fuck” (I don’t care how long we’ve been friends) before making you look stupid in public. Oh, and you know what else? Someone who thinks they’re eating a (oh yeah, time for the “”s again) “balanced meal” when they go to Outback and order the cheese fries and a strawberry margarita really has no place to tell someone else whether or not their diet choices are nutritionally sound. See “ignorant fuck” reference.

* Tanning beds are moronic. Same with slathering one’s body with oil to lie in the sun and roast like a ham. My super-fair skin rarely approaches anything close to a tan. The closest I get, other than a sun burn or two when the sunscreen isn’t doing its job, is a mild tint and a couple of freckles after a summer of biking and kayaking. Over the years I’ve actually come to like my fair skin. I don’t feel the need to bake my way to premature wrinkles or a cancerous tumor (hey, I smoke for that!). And hey, look at Nicole Kidman. I highly doubt that she feels the need to visit a tanning bed for months before each red carpet event. She’s as fair as fair can be and she looks incredible!

My arguments against tanning are apparently accepted by all under normal circumstances, but there seems to be one glaring exception. Apparently, no one wants you to look like “Marilyn Manson’s scary kid sister” in their wedding photos, and I’m told that baby blue dresses only look flattering on those with tanned complexions. My requests to be airbrushed have not met with approval. So I guess I’ll see the inside of an Easy Bake oven after all. Oh, I know I could say no, but I do feel just a tad guilty about the “ignorant fuck” comment.

* A psycho from a while back has started calling me again. Yikes. It’s like these freaks have some sort of radar and feel the need to cause problems when one is happily involved. Not that I’d want a psycho calling me when I’m single either, but at least then I wouldn’t have to explain the situation to anyone. Drat.

* And speaking of happily involved…ah. Nothing. Just wanted an excuse to bring it up again. *grin*

* My bum is definitely less sore after yesterday’s nine-mile jaunt on the trail. Today is the last nice day in the forecast for some time (high near 80!) and so I arrived to work early today so that I can get on the trails and back before the Bug Factor becomes too much of an issue. Loved the ride yesterday, only stopped once to flop on the grass in the sun and take a call from A (oh yes, I’m really THAT far gone). He is apparently planning on buying a newer model of my bike (I have a Specialized Rockhopper), which of course has me wanting to scrape together the $2,000 I need for the bike of my dreams. Grad school schmad school.

* Dinner last night was so delicious that I still haven’t recovered. I invested in some fake sausage and some fake cheese that I’ve yet to try (still trying to discover what I like and not like and all that) and made the closest thing I’ve had to pizza in over two months. Took a whole wheat crust and covered it with pizza sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, green pepper rings, red onions, and aforementioned fake sausage and fake mozzarella cheese. I’m drooling just thinking about it. Mmmm…